XBMC still better than anything else....
I have spent the past couple of months playing with Media centers from the $99.00 AppleTV to a $5800.00 Crestron ADMS. and all of them fall on their face flat when compared to a $300.00 pc built for XBMC live to be installed on it.
Apple TV is great, dont get me wrong, it's the only way you can legally watch downloaded TV shows. and it's the best choice for rentals. BUT playing your own content is incredibly painful. you have to stream it from itunes... No thanks. It's an epic fail if I can not pount my device at a NAS full of videos and have it play them.
The GoogleTV also fails. CLunky, more like turning your TV into a telephone running Android. The UI for finding and playing Videos is the most unfriendly I can imagine for a non techie.
Crestron AADS; Nice hardware, well designed but jam packed so full of DRM that it treats you like a criminal for having your own content. It will not play from a NAS, but copies the content to its self for playback, making updating a home movie painful at best. No support for playing Internet TV channels like TWIT, REvision3, etc... IT's great as a rental movie device, it stinks for a home media server. No way to stop the movie in the living room and go to the bedroom to resume where you left off.
The latest release of XBMC does all the above misses and does it with a Interface that even the wife loves and can use without training. The only thing it is missing is a netflix plugin.
If you want complete control over your media, XBMC is the only choice.
Apple TV is great, dont get me wrong, it's the only way you can legally watch downloaded TV shows. and it's the best choice for rentals. BUT playing your own content is incredibly painful. you have to stream it from itunes... No thanks. It's an epic fail if I can not pount my device at a NAS full of videos and have it play them.
The GoogleTV also fails. CLunky, more like turning your TV into a telephone running Android. The UI for finding and playing Videos is the most unfriendly I can imagine for a non techie.
Crestron AADS; Nice hardware, well designed but jam packed so full of DRM that it treats you like a criminal for having your own content. It will not play from a NAS, but copies the content to its self for playback, making updating a home movie painful at best. No support for playing Internet TV channels like TWIT, REvision3, etc... IT's great as a rental movie device, it stinks for a home media server. No way to stop the movie in the living room and go to the bedroom to resume where you left off.
The latest release of XBMC does all the above misses and does it with a Interface that even the wife loves and can use without training. The only thing it is missing is a netflix plugin.
If you want complete control over your media, XBMC is the only choice.
I realize this is an older post but for PC have you tried Media Browser? it's an add-on for windows vista/7 media center that's free with free user interfaces and additional add-ons for it like gamebrowser. I currently use it for my games/emulators, tv shows and movies. The only downside is the configuration. It requires specific folder structure for it to work properly. All movies need to be in individual folders and tv shows need to be in parent folders with additional sub folders for seasons. Other additional software like mediascout is required if your show or movie isn't named properly to get the correct metadata but other than that when you get it all set up it's a dream. Another plus is it works over the network so you just need to install it on the other computer and point the directories to the folders on your main machine and this works for games as well minus emulators those need to be installed on each machine in most cases.
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